Getting Your iPod to Play In Your Car: A Public Service Announcement

Since, apparently, most places that sell assistance devices for this very problem don't give their staff any information to work with...

True, I don't really need to listen to my Pod in my car, but then I don't really need an iPod to begin with. However, since I have both the car and the Pod, I recently set off on a mission to make them work together.

I did a little initial survey, results are as follows:
1) My coworker H.W. from HCY has an iTrip and didn't recommend it. He has a very long drive to work and said that he kept having to switch FM frequencies as he drove b/c the available frequencies kept changing.

Maybe I should stop here for those unfamiliar. There are several options for getting one's player to make nice with one's car. You could be spoiled like DB and your car could have a built-in port wherein you just plug the cord in--et voila! Music comes out the speakers! Option 2?--> a cassette adapter, much like those that the old portable CD players used B4 cars had them built-in. Option 3 is an FM transmitter. Basically, the player plugs into the transmitter (in a variety of ways, depending on the manufacturer) and that machine sends the music via an FM radio signal to your car radio using a frequency that's not being used by an actual radio station in your area.

And therein lies the problem. More on that later.

2) The Radio Shack guy said that the Monster brand FM transmitter one was really the best.
3) Nicholas at Best Buy in McHenry said that the Monster brand FM transmitter was really the best.

So, there, there's my initial market research.


As for the experimentation...
First I tried the Griffin iTrip ($49.99 @ Meijer), against H.W.'s advice. I believe this one is only for iPod? Eh, but I'm not sure.

It uses the iPod's battery (which was fine with me--I wasn't really looking for an item that also charged my Pod). It's about .5 x 1.5 inches and plugs into the iPod charging dock on the bottom of the Pod. That's it. Very unobtrusive, which I liked. Basically, you tune the iTrip and your car radio to the same frequency (I chose 87.9) and hit Play. Music comes out.

Technically, it worked. The setup and use were uncomplicated. Music came out. It wasn't distorted or anything. There were 2 problems, though. The minor one was that the radio had to be turned up very loud to decently hear the music. Like don't accidentally hit the wrong button or you eardrums will burst loud--not that desirable, as I accidentally hit the wrong button twice during my 15 min drive home from Meijer. Ouch.

The major problem was that there was a lot of noise. I'd call it tape noise, except there wasn't a tape. It was the kind of noise you'd hear on a cassette tape if you didn't turn the Dolby Noise Reduction on. Bummer.

For $49.99, I couldn't live with it, so back it went the very next day.

The same day I returned the iTrip, I decided to try another option. This time I chose the Belkin TuneCast II for $39.99. A oval piece, white, about 2 x 1.5 inches with a cord sticking out. This one was battery powered (2AAA) and plugged into the 3.5mm headphone jack on the Pod. It actually is made to work with any mp3 player.

I noticed after I got it all together, that it had been previously been opened, and I was about to see why. The "tape" noise was better. The volume problem was the same. It was disposable battery powered, which I wasn't really that thrilled with. It only worked between frequencies 88.1 - 107.9, so I couldn't use the 87.9, which was less than ideal.

Better, yes. Good enough? Alas, no. I couldn't live with the noise. I'm like the Princess and the Pea--ask DB. I can't stand little scrapey noises--they drive me insane.

So--on July 3rd, after DB's softball game, we returned the poor thing to Meijer. I saw, sitting on the return counter, the iTrip I had returned earlier that afternoon.

I felt a little bad for being a serial returner, but if stores would just give their (electronics, in this case) employees some information to work with, people wouldn't keep returning things that don't work.


So, this time, DB and I picked out a DLO transmitter with 2 adjustable arms that plugs into the cigarette lighter (for $99, ack!) and a Belkin tape adapter for $19.99. I figured that if the DLO didn't work, I would just go with the supercool tape adapter.

The DLO-->
Much, much better than the previous 2 adapters! It's powered via the cigarette lighter--the port of which is then attached to 2 adjustable arms that will prop your Pod up at a decent height and angle so you don't crash while driving.

DB and I installed it while sitting in the Meijer parking lot, in the rain, watching the McHenry fireworks. It took longer than I expected to get it all together. It's not that it's terribly complicated, but the fit adapters (for the Nano, in my case) didn't really seem to actually fit. Could be a DLO problem, could be the 8gb nano is an odd size.

Also, the adjustable arms adjust via a series of hinges with screw tighteners. It was hard to wrap our brains around the angles needed to get the Pod into a particular position, b/c you couldn't really adjust the thing as it was in place in the cigarette lighter. So it was a half hour of fidget--check--nope, not right--fiddle--check--oops, wrong side--etc--etc.

Finally it was in a good position. Docked the Pod, aligned the radio stations, and music came out. It was markedly better than the other 2 choices had been. At the time, I noticed no noise at all, even though I had to use the 88.1 - 107.9 frequency range. The volume level had to be louder, but not that loud. The display was soothing shade of blue.

With the blue lights and the bionic arm, I kind of felt like a state trooper in my car--which already has 2 gear shifters in the front console due to the 4WD. So that was kind of cool.



Alas,
as of this morning, I think I'm going to return this one too. It's fine, I probably could live with it. For pop, rap, or rock music, it's great. For the ragtime, classical, RatPack, and swing music I tried this morning, I can hear the noise. I am being picky, but for $99 who wants to think "hey this'd sound great without all that hiss."

So, as I drove to work this morning, I tried the Belkin Cassette Adapter. That's all that's in the box. The adapter. Not even any instructions--which, I suppose, would say: "Stick This In Your Tape Deck".

Cassette thing in the cassette deck, plug in the 3.5mm port, music came out. The sound is good--not exactly as good as the Pod sounds thru earphones, but still good.

For now, this is the one I'm keeping.
Pros: it works.
Cons: it's nerdy white and about as cool as it was in 1999 when you'd balance your portable CD player on the car seat next to you--hoping it wouldn't skip.

Yep, you need to have a tape deck in the car, which are going the way of the dinosaurs, but it works for me.


Meijer didn't sell the Monster brand transmitter--if I see one, I might give it a shot. The Chicago radio frequencies are crowded, though--it's not like the middle of Montana, where you might have 20 empty ones to choose from. There are about 5 here.

I'll keep you posted.